科技文体的汉译英

 

 

          

科技文体的范畴

•科技文体可以泛指一切论及或谈及科学和技术的书面语和口语，其中包括：

1. 科技著述、科技论文和报告、实验报告和方案；

2. 各类科技情报和文字资料；

3. 科技实用手册(Operative Means,包括仪器、   仪表、机械、工具等）的结构描述和操作规程；

4. 有关科技问题的会谈、会议、交谈的用语；

5. 有关科技的影片、录像等有声资料的解说词，等等。

1. 科技著述、科技论文和报告、实验报告和方案；
2. 各类科技情报和文字资料；

•这两项科技英语，在文体学上统称为科学散文。 (scientific prose)

 

 

科技英语文体总貌

•着重叙事逻辑上的联贯(Coherence)及表达上的明晰(Clarity)与畅达(Fluency)；避免行文晦涩，作者避免表露个人感情，避免论证上的主观随意性。因此，科技英语总是力求少用或不用描述性形容词以及具有抒情作用的副词、感叹词及疑问词。

•科技英语结构力求平易(Plainness)和精确(Preciseness)，因此尽力避免使用旨在加强语言感染力和宣传效果的各种修辞格，忌用夸张、借喻、讥讽、反诘、双关及押韵等修辞手段，以免使读者产生行文浮华、内容虚饰之感。

科技文体的一般特征

•(1) 无人称（Impersonal)

•(2) 语气正式 (Formal in Mode of

                      Speech)

•(3) 陈述客观、准确(Objective and

                         Accurate in Statement)

•(4) 语言规范 (Standard in Language)

•(5) 文体质朴 (Unadorned in stylistics)

•(6) 逻辑性强 (Strict in Logic)

•(7) 专业术语性强 (Concentrated in

                              Technical Terms)

（1）无人称

•绝大多数科技文章很少使用有人称的句子。 这主要是由于科技文章所描述和所讨论的是科学发现或科技实事。 尽管科技活动系人类所为，但由于科技文章所报告的主要是这种科技的结果或自然规律，而不是报告这些结果或自然规律是由谁发现或完成的，因此，科技文章往往没有人称。

•无人称不是绝对的；总的来说，人称句在科技文章中的比例很小。

 

•The general layout of the illumination system and lenses of the microscope corresponds to the layout of the light microscope. The electron “gun” which produces the electrons is equivalent to the light source of the optical microscope. The electrons are accelerated by a high-voltage potential (usually 40,000 to 100 000 volts), and pass through a condenser lens system usually composed of two magnetic lenses. The system concentrates the beam on to the specimen, and the objective lens provides the primary magnification. The final images in the electron microscope must be projected on to a phosphor-coated screen so that it can be seen. For this reason, the lenses that are equivalent of the eyepiece in an optical microscope are called “projector” lenses.

                          (From Thornley G C, Further Scientific English Practice)

（2）语气正式

A Talk about Corrosion

Dr. Brown: Good Morning, Mr. Smith. Can I take your coat? Awful weather, isn’t it? Sit down. Cigarette?

Mr. Smith: No, I don’t smoke, thanks very much.

Dr. Brown: Well, I’ve been looking into your enquiry about the corrosion trouble you’ve been getting in the control valve. I’m sorry you’ve had trouble --- quite unexpected --- but I think we have the answer. The most probable cause of corrosion at a metal-to-metal junction immersed in an ionized fluid is electrolytic.

                       (From BBC, Scientifically Speaking )

（3）陈述客观、准确

•科技文章是反映客观事实的，文章中不能参杂作者个人的主观意识，不能带个人感情色彩，对客观事实的陈述必须客观、准确。这既是科技文章的特征，也是对科技文章作者的基本要求。

（4）语言规范

•科技文章的语言一般比较规范，主要表现为语法的规范性。这与文学作品有很大不同。

•科技文章的语法之所以规范，是因为其描述的客观事物必须准确无误这一要求决定的。

（5）文体质朴

•在修辞手段上，科技文章以交际修辞为主（Dominated in communicative rhetoric), 文风质朴、描述准确，不像文学文体那样富于美学修辞（Aesthetic rhetoric)手段和艺术色彩。

•主要表现在语言的统一性（Unity)和连贯性(Coherence)强，语句平衡匀密，简洁而不单调，语句长而不累赘、迂回。

消极修辞和积极修辞

•根据现代修辞学的观点，修辞的目的在于提高语言的表达效果（Brooks & Warren 1979)

•消极修辞（交际修辞）：在总体上注重逻辑思维，其重点在于使语言表达简明、流畅、准确，有效地发挥语言的交际功能。“意义明确、伦次通顺、词句平匀、安排稳密。”　（陈望道）

•积极修辞（美学修辞）：在把握逻辑思维的基础上，偏重于语言表达的生动、活泼、优雅、具感染力，从而取得语言的艺术性表达效果。　

 

•Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert to the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of throne,…There is no longer any room for hope.

 

•There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come! 

        Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course other may take, but for me, give me liberty or give me death!

（6）逻辑性强

•概念准确，判断合理、恰当，推理严密。

赵祖谟《小说创作隐性逻辑》

•“无论文学家还是科学家，其思维都离不开感情、形象、理性，这一点当前已形成共识。那么小说家和科学家思维方式的不同究竟在哪里？就在于情感、形象、理性诸因素在整个思维活动中所处的地位、所起的作用不同。科学家是人，而人不可能无情。但科学家之情推动他力求客观地、冷静地做出判断、推理，科学家以抽象的论证为指归。 科学研究的成果既有抽象的理论又有形象的营构，其内核是理性，他力避主观情感对客观事物的介入。”

 

 

•“小说家是人，是人就不能无‘理’。但小说家的理在整个创作过程中始终同‘情’紧密结合，不能一时一刻忘记‘情’。小说家以创造形象为指归。而形象的内核是‘情’，因而小说家要强化感情的介入，讲究移情。”

                《小说创作隐性逻辑》 

 

•赵先生这里所说的“理”即是逻辑，“情”即是修辞（美学修辞）。由此可见，无论科技文章还是文学作品，都离不开逻辑和修辞（美学修辞），只是前者逻辑性突出，而后者富于修辞（美学修辞）和艺术色彩罢了。

（7）专业术语性强

•众所周知，科技文章（科普文章除外）均有一个专业范围。一般来说，其读者均是“本专业”的科技人员，至少说是文章是为“本专业”的读者而写的。

•专业术语是构成科技理论的语言基础，其余一具有严谨性和单一性。

•采用术语写作能使文章更加准确而简洁。

专业术语十分密集

•It is possible to prove that as the number of tosses of coin is increased indefinitely, or “to infinity”, so the binomial distribution becomes identical with the normal distribution. For each kind of random event there is an underlying distribution.  The normal or Gaussian distribution is very important because it arises very often in practice and also because it is very important in theory. Many distributions like binomial tend to become more and more like the normal as the number of events or the size of the sample increases.

 

•Another well-known statistical distribution is the Poisson distribution. If we are dealing with the frequency of occurrence of events which occur at random in time and space, we should expect the Poisson distribution to play some part in the calculation.

         (From BBC, Scientifically Speaking)

 

 

        借用动物名称的专业术语

 

             

 

 

 

•英语           日常用语意义      机械专业术语意义

 

 

•coat                        外衣                              镀层

•cap                         帽子                       轴承盖，罩壳

•shoe                       鞋子                       闸瓦，履带片

•cup                        杯子                         皮碗，轴套

•bed                          床                        底座，机床身

•bench                    长凳                        拉床，钳工台

•house                     房子                         箱体，罩

•disk                        唱片                          硬磨盘

•desk                      书桌                           控制屏

•table                      桌子                          放料盘

 

•英语           日常用语意义       机械专业术语意义

 

•eye                            眼                                 孔环

•ear                            耳                                 吊钩

•mouth                       口                                  开度

•nose                          鼻                                 喷嘴

•hand                          手                            手柄，指针

•finger                       手指                               厚薄规

•foot                           脚                                  支座

•head                          头                            冒口，刀架

•neck                           颈                                   座

•body                         身体                                 机身

•hair                           头发                                 游丝

•tooth                         牙齿                               粗糙面

 

注意事项

•任何一种文体的语言特征都不是绝对的。

 

•现代科普英语出现了与上述文体特征并行的趋势，即强调摆脱科技文体的因袭文风(EST Stereotype)，力求洗刷科技文章的枯涩与沉闷感(Dullness and Heaviness)。

•科普作品的作者往往采用比较通俗的文风，融知识性和趣味性于一体，用词灵活，词句带有一定的感情色彩，尽量减少使用专业术语， 有时也使用人称和比较华丽的词藻。

科普文章举例

•    A large proportion of strokes are proceed days, weeks or months before the strokes occur by warning signs or symptoms. Prompt attention to these symptoms can often make all the difference between a healthy life and a half-life in a twilight zone.

         The most common warning sign is a feeling of weakness or numbness in an arm or leg or one side of the body. There may be temporary loss of speech or difficulty in speaking or understanding speech; temporary loss or dimness or vision; temporary dizziness, unsteadiness or fainting spells.

 

   These symptoms are caused by “transient ischemic attacks (TIA’s), or “little strokes”. Ischemic means a deficiency of blood in the arteries of the brain. In TIA’s, the deficiency lasts only for a few seconds or minutes and causes only momentary disability.

          As TIA’s --- they may be infrequent or occur several times a day --- are usually very brief and not alarming they are often ignored, with tragic consequences. If you promptly report them to your doctor, he will take immediate steps to discover the cause in order to prevent any impending strokes.

 

达尔文的《物种起源》选段

•   It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. (美学修辞手段：隐喻、拟人、排比等）

 

•这是科技文体的变异，但并不是科技文体特征的主流。